How effective is melatonin and in what doses?

[Brampton_Boy]

Alas, my insomnia has returned due to an erratic school and sleep schedule. While remeron has been a God send for the better part of a year, I was hoping to try a more natural alternative.

Does anyone have experiences with melatonin? What dosage did you find the most effective?

Thanks in advance

 

[MuyThaiFighter]

I love Max Muscle's ITRX or whatever it's called.

 

[Smash_BJJ]

I did no find melatonin helpful for myself. However, my college roommate swore by it.

 

[eneyman86**]

I just started taking it a week ago, I bought the Schiff 3mg + theanine from vitacost, I take two of them and they make me pretty tired and ready to sleep, i'm sure 3 would knock you out. I wake up early in the morning too, good sleep.

 

[Oblivian]

My personal experience with melatonin was very negative. I was able to fall asleep quicker, but my dreams were a lot more vivid to the point where I would wake up from them sweating. I was able to fall asleep again easily though. My beef is that I'd rather take longer to fall asleep and sleep through the night than fall asleep quickly but wake up a bunch.

I haven't had sleeping problems for a whlie now because I have a pretty good schedule. I tried everything back when I was in school and partying/staying up late. As bad as it sounds, if I was off a good sleep schedule but ready to get back on a good one, I would prefer to take Tylenol PM for a couple days at the time I wanted to go to bed. By the third or fourth day, I wouldn't need the Tylenol PM and my proper schedule begins. NOTE: By no means would I recommend doing this often. That was just a way for me to get started on a schedule of going to bed much earlier than I was used to.

 

[Darksky]

It has been awhile since I have used it but really made me cloudy when I woke up.

 

[Monger]

The only success I've had with it is in combination with other stuff... and to be honest, the other stuff probably had the most impact.

By "other stuff" I mostly mean valerian root and GABA.

 

[evilf22]

i use 3mg an hour before bedtime, and another 3mg as i lay down (if i remember too, its not 100% ritual). i sleep well, but its more important to block ALL light in the room, unplug all electronics, and most importantly....

go to bed every night at the same time.


even weekends when possible. i cant stress this one enough, it made a world of difference for me.

 

[Vedic]

3-6 mg has always worked well for me and others.

 

[joshetc]

Alas, my insomnia has returned due to an erratic school and sleep schedule. While remeron has been a God send for the better part of a year, I was hoping to try a more natural alternative.

Does anyone have experiences with melatonin? What dosage did you find the most effective?

Thanks in advance

Melatonin is a hormone your body makes when you sleep. Production is much higher when you are in complete darkness than when you are in the light, though I'm not sure by how much.

Most supplemental melatonin is 3mg. You can safely take 6mg as well, though I'm not sure over what duration 6mg would be safe. Theory is that taking melatonin on a regular basis will inhibit your body's own melatonin production. If you decide to take it, most supplements recommend certain cycling schedules. Personally, I don't take it all the time. When I do, it works. I feel like I sleep better and require less sleep to recover. At the most I'll only take it 2-3 days a week.

 

[Bocgam]

I take 3mg of melatonin every evening, but I haven't found it helps in actually putting me to sleep.

As previous posts suggest, it definitely makes dreams more vivid and increases deep sleep. I occasionally get lucid dreams. It's relatively inexpensive and probably worth giving a shot.

 

[noobloser]

My personal experience with melatonin was very negative. I was able to fall asleep quicker, but my dreams were a lot more vivid to the point where I would wake up from them sweating.

Maybe I'm weird, but I love going to sleep not knowing what crazy shit I'm going to dream about.

Last night I had this one where my wife and I owned a gun store and a customer came in and placed an order but we didn't have some of the stuff in stock. So my wife went to buy the stuff wholesale at some store and came back with all these bags of extra crap. She told me she spent $800 and I was furious because she spent so much money and I was going crazy like I was going to kill her. And then she got mad and took off in the car and never came back.

Awesome.

 

[Jake Martin]

I typically take 5MG my first night, then 3, then 1.5, then nothing..if my sleep schedule has been fucked up and I'm looking to get it back on track. That usually gets me back into a rhythm.

Of course I'm a big sleep supplement whore, so this is on top of my ZMA and valerian...

 

[cheath]

My experience with this is that I woke up with a huge headache, so I quit doing it.

I'm a psychologist, so allow me to drop a little knowledge....using this once in awhile won't be the end of you. However, I would not advocate it as a long-term thing. The psychological processes that would come wtih it could make it quite hard to quit taking it.

If you go see someone like a behavioral psychologist, or any type of doctor (MD or psychologist) who specializes in sleep, they'll likely give you some simple suggestions of how to alter your lifestyle that will make a big difference. They'll be behavioral things that you control.

 

[Brampton_Boy]

Thanks for the help everyone. I picked up a bottle of sublingual melatonin (albeit for the hideous price of $15)

I'll let everyone know how it works.

 

[black koala]

Read the label and take the stated dosage. Dont go crazy and take more than it says. I have been taking 3mg/night for years and it really helps me to fall into a deep sleep.

 

[seiko]

I experienced that too, for the first few days. Taking a 3mg dose at about 9, sleeping at 930 and waking up sweaty at about 12. The dreams were like the falling in a cliff and waking up just before reaching the ground type of dream. The problem when this happened with me was that I couldnt sleep again. The sticky sweaty feeling was too uncomfortable.

For me, the quality of sleep wasn't really good with Melatonin. The sleep i got with Valium was loads better, but I was getting a tolerance so I stopped taking it. Plus, buying it of some illegal source was the only way i got so it wasn't really smart for me.

 

[RedNeckJiuJitsu]

Of course I'm a big sleep supplement whore, so this is on top of my ZMA and valerian...

I usually take ZMA and valerian as well (well, if usually means the last 2 months). Lately I've started to dream more than normal, but my schedule's been pretty screwy with finals and such. Provided I get myself to sleep on time, melatonin (1 tablet), valerian (2 pills), GNC ZMA (2 pills) and I sleep like a baby and wake up feelin' pretty good.

 

[upnorthmma]

Thanks for the help everyone. I picked up a bottle of sublingual melatonin (albeit for the hideous price of $15)

I'll let everyone know how it works.

Ouch to much money, it is cheaper at GNC and if you combined it(sublingual 1 mg) with 2 Natra Sleep from GNC. You should be able to sleep well and not have the funky dreams which won't let you really sleep well.

HOWEVER, two other things to think about is when do you train? If it is later in the day (after3) what supplements are you taking and have you increased the amount of them?

And try magnesium/calcium before bed it takes about a week but it naturally helps you sleep

 

[Jake Martin]

I usually take ZMA and valerian as well (well, if usually means the last 2 months). Lately I've started to dream more than normal, but my schedule's been pretty screwy with finals and such. Provided I get myself to sleep on time, melatonin (1 tablet), valerian (2 pills), GNC ZMA (2 pills) and I sleep like a baby and wake up feelin' pretty good.

It really is an awesome cocktail. I'm going to try adding some GABA to it, as well. Threw some in with my TrueProtein order, since they have it for $4 bucks or so.